Virtually nothing is known about John
Endecott's life prior to his involvement with the Massachusetts Bay
Colony other than that he was
born either in or near Devon, England, sometime around
1588.

In 1628, Endecott and six other men, as
The New England Company for a Plantation in
Massachusetts, were granted a charter for
all land between three miles north of the Merrimack River
and three miles south of the Charles River, from the
Atlantic to the Pacific. Endecott was chosen to lead the
company's first expedition, which set sail on June 20,
1628. Upon arrival, the fifty settlers organized the
settlement of Naumkeag, after a local Native American
tribe, in an area that was already occupied by settlers
of the failed Dorchester Company. The settlement faced
serious problems from the beginning, not the least of
which was an epidemic that began taking hold during its
first summer. As the colony's leader, Endecott perusaded
the Governor of the New Plymouth Colony to send their
resident physician, Dr. Samuel Fuller, to Salem and stop
the epidemic before it could claim too many lives. The
settlement was renamed Salem upon issuance of a royal
charter in 1629, and Endecott was formally named as the
colony's Governor at the same time.

As Governor of Salem, Endecott earned a
reputation as a fair, but strict, leader who rigorously
enforced Puritan religious beliefs and punished, often
severely, those he believed to be offenders. In 1630, John Winthrop arrived with a new group of colonists, as well
as a new charter naming him as Governor. Endecott
dutifully handed over control of the colony to Winthrop,
who then moved its seat to what is now Boston. Endecott
chose not to move to the new site, but he continued to
serve the colony in various capacities, including several
more stints as Governor, for the rest of his life. When
not engaged in colony business, he lavished attention on
his 300-acre land grant (located where the city of
Danvers, Massachusetts, sits today). One of his earliest
ventures was the propogation of the first cultivated
fruit trees in North America, and one of the pear trees
he planted still bears fruit to this day. He also
engaged in one of the earliest attempts to develop a
mining industry in the colonies when copper ore was found
on his land.

the Endecott Pear Tree in Danvers

Religious conflict between the Salem and Boston
settlements was the primary source of political conflict
in the New England colony, with the Salem church seeking
a complete break with the Church of England and the
Boston church advocating reform of the Church from
within. This conflict was heightened by the arrival in
Boston of Roger
Williams, an avowed Separatist, in 1631. After refusing an invitation to become the
minister of a Boston church because that church had not
officially severed its ties with the Church of England,
Williams accepted Endecott's invitation to assume the
ministry of the church at Salem. When, in 1634, Boston
authorities issued a warrant for Williams's arrest on
grounds of treason and heresy, Endecott responded by
defacing the local militia's flag, declaring that the St.
George's Cross it bore was a symbol of the papacy.
Endecott was censured for the rashness of his action (not
for the act itself) and prevented from holding any public
office for one year, and, as a result, 1635 was the only
year in which he held no office of any kind.

Endecott defacing the flag

In July of 1636, Massachusetts trader
John Oldham was killed by a band of Native Americans on
Block Island (off Rhode
Island). Massachusetts
authorities immediately blamed the Narraganset for the
murder, but Narragansett leaders claimed that those
responsible for the crime had actually been affiliated
with the Pequot, who at that time were already at odds
with Massachusetts for failing to turn over men
implicated in the murder of another trader two years
earlier. In August, Massachusetts Governor Henry Vane
placed Endecott at the head of a 90-man force to punish
the Pequot. Although Endicott met little resistance from
the Pequot when he landed on Block Island, he spent two
days destroying their villages, crops, and canoes.
Proceeding on to Pequot territory, Endicott initially
agreed to meet with Pequot envoys to negotiate a
settlement, but then decided they were simply stalling
while awaiting reinforcements and went off on another
destruction and looting rampage before heading back to
Salem. Although Endecott's raids resulted in very few
casualties on either side, the Pequot
War that followed practically
destroyed the Pequot tribe as an entity.

Endecott landing on Block Island

Endecott was elected Deputy Governor in 1641, and in
this role was one of the signatories to the Massachusetts
Body of Liberties, an enumeration of rights available to
every individual citizen of Massachusetts. In 1643, he
represented Massachusetts as part of the New England
Confederation, which was formed to facilitate united
action by all New England colonies against common
external threats as well as internal matters such as
escaped slaves and criminal fugitives.

In 1644, Endecott was elected Governor, with Winthrop
as his Deputy. During his one-year term, Endecott oversaw
the division of the Massachusetts Colony into four
counties -- Suffolk, Essex, Middlesex, and Norfolk.
Endecott's return to the governorship also sparked a
movement to move the capital back to Salem, but the
colony's Council of Assistants, who held the actual
governing authority, nixed the idea almost immediately
and it was never again an issue. Endecott became Governor
again upon the death of Winthrop in 1649, and, by annual
re-elections, subsequently served as either Governor or
Deputy Governor almost continuously until his death. Most
of his later tenures as Governor were marked by severe
retributions against non-Puritans, especially Quakers.
Those Quakers who dared to emigrate to Boston were
subject to immediate arrest and deportation, and those
who either refused to leave or tried to return to
Massachusetts were even subject to the death penalty. The
colony's consistent refusal to accept non-Separatists
into its realm ultimately led to the revocation of its
charter in 1684.